Marginal Wood Fern

Marginal Wood Fern

Dryopteris marginalis

Wood Fern Family --- Dryopteridaceae

Leaves, in upright clusters, are twice-divided. Leaflets (15 to 30) paired, distinctly separated and tapering to a point, which tends to arch upwards. Subleaflets coarsely toothed or with serrated edges and tip blunt.

A 2 to 3 foot tall, erect perennial and evergreen fern growing usually in dryish rocky sites in hardwood stands.

Leaf stalks with a frontal groove and brownish scales. Fruit dots (sori) relatively large and regularly placed at the margins of the undersurface of subleaflets. (Photographed at Eagle Lake - August 18, 2002

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